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Post by Mattsby on Aug 16, 2018 1:19:26 GMT
Meaning, they never directed anything else. Recent movies don't count - let's just go with pre 2010.
The Night of the Hunter (1955, Charles Laughton) - clearly #1, the amount of control and unique craft offered here is unreal. Wanda (1970, Barbara Loden) - this one is having a revival of sorts right now. One-Eyed Jacks (1961, Marlon Brando) - altho some say Brando practically directed Mutiny on the Bounty a year later.
What else?
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Post by stephen on Aug 16, 2018 1:29:20 GMT
The Night of the Hunter is an undisputed (and for my money, unparalleled) masterpiece in Southern Gothic noir. Laughton could've gone on to such dazzling, dizzying heights, but the tepid critical reception really gnawed at him and, in my opinion, drove him to an early grave. One-Eyed Jacks has its flaws, but I think that its shagginess is actually in service of the overall project. Malden and Jurado are fantastic supporting players in it, and while I'm not quite as enthused with Brando's actorly work here, I do think he had a strong sense of visual flair that almost eclipses it. I know you don't want anything recent, but Gosling's Lost River deserves mention because a.) it's such a bizarre yet wholly enthralling experience, and b.) I'd be very surprised if they let him make another movie after it. I think its biggest failing is that it is two distinctly different movies (one a gorgeous coming-of-age fable that almost feels like a Guillermo del Toro dream, the other a Lynchian nightmare seen through Refn's eyes), and that Gosling should've picked one or the other and fleshed it out fully, then made the other story as his second film. I think that his direction is nevertheless staggering in its confidence, its potency, and the way that it manages to linger in the mind. It's clear Gosling wears his influences blatantly on his sleeve, but that's not a bad thing by any means. And on the heels of that, another recent debut from an actor-turned-director that I think deserves plaudits: Russell Crowe. The Water Diviner feels like the best Peter Weir film the man himself never made, as well as a film of such sweeping beauty as to make Ridley Scott jealous. I think it's likely he will make another film, but no one talks about this one, and it's legitimately got a maestro's touch to it.
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 16, 2018 1:43:54 GMT
James William Guercio's Electra Glide in Blue is a not particularly well directed film but captures a great Robert Blake performance and Conrad Hall's ace cinematography, and in some ways it is a lower tier American small classic (in a way) - a flipside to Easy Rider.
I imagine its quite underseen on here......
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Post by Christ_Ian_Bale on Aug 16, 2018 2:11:51 GMT
Carnival of Souls was the only feature-length movie from Herk Harvey, though he did also direct like a billion shorts. One of my absolute favorite horror movies.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2018 2:36:01 GMT
I have been meaning to watch Wanda - Huppert is a huge fan of the film and of Barbara Loden - if I'm not mistaken, she and her husband launched the campaign to restore the film?
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 16, 2018 9:41:41 GMT
Wanda makes a great companion piece with Coppola's very great The Rain People (1969) - both genuine feminist classics - although Wanda cuts deeper since the creator, Loden is also starring (spectacularly too). Also, Diary Of A Mad Housewife a lesser film but screaming to be rediscovered has elements of that too - all 3 of those films were released within a year.
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Post by thomasjerome on Aug 16, 2018 11:53:13 GMT
"The War Zone" (1999), directed by Tim Roth
"Angst" (1983), directed by Gerald Kargl
"Down in the Delta" (1998), directed by Maya Angelou
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 16, 2018 12:10:32 GMT
Not yet mentioned, Oldman's Nil By Mouth......
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2018 12:42:03 GMT
Night Train (1998) by John Lynch. Hidden masterpiece!
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Post by Mattsby on Aug 16, 2018 20:37:40 GMT
"Angst" (1983), directed by Gerald Kargl Good one. The ferocious (quite impressive) camerawork and evocation of unmitigated terror is really skillful. Like it isn't easy to pick up a camera and do what he did here and pull it off. I looked into Kargl - he was organizing festivals and editing magazines before he did Angst. Where'd this come from? lol
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Post by Mattsby on Aug 16, 2018 20:48:00 GMT
Recently saw The Lost Moment from 1947. Was a box office failure and critics hated it - and it's not great (due to the lackluster narrative and dull lead performance) but the director Martin Gabel kinda proves here he could've been a talented filmmaker.
He was a stage actor, first in Welles' Mercury Theatre repertory and later won a Tony! I haven't figured out how he came to direct this Universal pic, it seems to be his first job in the movie business. His direction is skilled, the visuals, blocking, use of sound/score to create space and atmosphere and Gothic gloom....
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Post by cheesecake on Aug 16, 2018 21:23:40 GMT
Great topic! Nominated for his work behind the camera in the sound department for The Conversation and winning for Apocalypse Now, Walter Murch was also nominated for editing Julia and Apocalypse Now and later went on to win Oscars for The English Patient. For a brief window in 1985, however, he decided to take on the sequel of a timeless classic and fuck up the childhoods of kids across nations. Shame he never directed anything else after Return to Oz, though he does have an episode of Clone Wars under his belt. Adapting his own novel, Dalton Trumbo only made one film with the unflinching Johnny Got His Gun.I'm a big fan of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead but Tom Stoppard has focused solely on writing since. Originally planned as a Martin Scorsese film until he went over budget, The Honeymoon Killers was the one film wonder of Leonard Kastle whose background was in opera composing.
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Post by Mattsby on Aug 16, 2018 21:39:17 GMT
Nominated for his work behind the camera in the sound department for The Conversation and winning for Apocalypse Now, Walter Murch was also nominated for editing Julia and Apocalypse Now and later went on to win Oscars for The English Patient. For a brief window in 1985, however, he decided to take on the remake of a timeless classic and fuck up the childhoods of kids across nations. Shame he never directed anything else after Return to Oz, though he does have an episode of Clone Wars under his belt. Ohhh! Been meaning to see this. I really love the book The Conversations with Walter Murch and he talks a lot about working on that project. Apparently, a Disney executive had a LA Times critic compile a list of people "who weren't directors yet but soon might be" and he was on it and when they called his first pitch was a sequel to Wizard of Oz. Bold move! But he seems pleased with how it turned out. Curious he never directed again, I guess he just prefers the ease of editing...
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Post by cheesecake on Aug 16, 2018 22:43:06 GMT
Nominated for his work behind the camera in the sound department for The Conversation and winning for Apocalypse Now, Walter Murch was also nominated for editing Julia and Apocalypse Now and later went on to win Oscars for The English Patient. For a brief window in 1985, however, he decided to take on the remake of a timeless classic and fuck up the childhoods of kids across nations. Shame he never directed anything else after Return to Oz, though he does have an episode of Clone Wars under his belt. Ohhh! Been meaning to see this. I really love the book The Conversations with Walter Murch and he talks a lot about working on that project. Apparently, a Disney executive had a LA Times critic compile a list of people "who weren't directors yet but soon might be" and he was on it and when they called his first pitch was a sequel to Wizard of Oz. Bold move! But he seems pleased with how it turned out. Curious he never directed again, I guess he just prefers the ease of editing... Dude. I am obsessed with it. It's my mission in life to get as many people to watch it as possible. It is so twisted, hope you dig it.
And I meant to say sequel in my original post. Durrr.
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Post by eyebrowmorroco on Aug 19, 2018 12:54:44 GMT
Andy Warhol's Bad Desire and Hell at the Sunset Motel (Alien Castle... Lynch?) Night Train, dir. Les Bernstien
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Post by fiosnasiob on Aug 19, 2018 13:26:19 GMT
Master, Mistress and Servant (Abrar Alvi) Limite (Mario Peixoto) Chameleon Street (Wendell B. Harris Jr.) C'est arrivé près de chez vous (Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, B. Poelvoorde) Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondô)
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Post by Mattsby on Aug 20, 2018 0:15:59 GMT
C'est arrivé près de chez vous (Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel, B. Poelvoorde) Man Bites Dog! Completely forgot about this major one, and maybe the only film listed here that can stand with Night of the Hunter in terms of directorial vision and execution. The film, and Benoit Poelvoorde's performance too, has to balance its mortifying and disturbing aspects, with a hilarious twisted wit, and somehow they remarkably pull it off. Also I don't imagine there's a better film that has three credited directors.
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Post by Mattsby on Aug 20, 2018 0:31:59 GMT
Another solid one: Hide in Plain Sight (1980). It's actually much better than you'd think a film directed by James Caan would be lol. And only 600 votes on IMDb...
Based on a true story, Caan plays a blue-collar dude whose ex-wife and kids suddenly go missing (well, she married a mobster and they all hadda go into Witness Protection) so Caan has to do some light sleuthing, figure out why the gov't is awning the situation, and deal with some betrayed-and-angry mobsters also looking for the family. It's actually an interesting story and could've easily been a Lumet film - though it doesn't fully deliver. Caan is pretty good and quite subdued here, it's a role you could picture Casey Affleck playing in a remake. Caan's direction is interesting: a lot of static long shots and some inspired moments in how he frames the characters and uses diegetic sound. Yet it all feels reigned in, the narrative doesn't have the pull or tension it needs, and winds up being kinda forgettable. Still solid, 7/10 ish.
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Post by Mattsby on Mar 18, 2019 20:27:53 GMT
James William Guercio's Electra Glide in Blue is a not particularly well directed film but captures a great Robert Blake performance and Conrad Hall's ace cinematography, and in some ways it is a lower tier American small classic (in a way) - a flipside to Easy Rider. I imagine its quite underseen on here...... Just watched this one. Even though it's a little heavy handed, roughly paced, and the whole crime-mystery element baggy, there are shifts of interesting style in Guercio's direction, like the transitional montages that, with the big music, sort of overstates Blake's character but in a way that makes sense bc he thinks highly of himself too. Lotta credit to Hall (he had his pick of projects at the time).....how the camera movement in the opening scene mirrors the movement in Blake's morning routine, close and guarded. That, next to the expansive exterior spaces which only seem to isolate Blake even more, right to the great last shot that lingers and lingers; you can't say Guercio wasn't bold in his choices. Sure enough this was subject to swarms of hate upon release - Cannes, critics, public - something to piss off everyone. Blake the standout, with on-screen ease, impressively and tensely measured -- how he protects his professional ambition with moral strictness.
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Post by Mattsby on Mar 18, 2019 20:33:28 GMT
Originally planned as a Martin Scorsese film until he went over budget, The Honeymoon Killers was the one film wonder of Leonard Kastle whose background was in opera composing. I saw this last year and really liked it, kinda wanna see it again actually. I’ve since recommended it to people by saying it’s like Cassavetes teamed with John Waters to make a low-budget noir. Even though it’s a little tonally awkward, and starts off creaky, when it gets into it, the later murder scenes etc it’s very chilling. This shot late 1968 - Scorsese must’ve developed and then filmed (for just one week, before being fired) right around when Who’s That Knocking On My Door was officially released. IMDb has the other director Donald Volkman - who was hired and fired before Kastle came on - listed as uncredited director, but not Scorsese? who was heading pre production and shot like 15% of the movie. There isn’t enough info on the exact extent of Scorsese’s contributions - who knows, but if it was listed on his page it’d at least draw more attention from film students and whoever else! Anyway, it’s too bad Kastle didn’t do anything else - the script is actually quite well-written and he's written others, he's said.
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Film Socialism
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Post by Film Socialism on Mar 19, 2019 3:52:53 GMT
if you count it L'Atalante, but the goat to me is Blood Beat which is one of the all-time great horrors, unparalleled on every level as shlock, faux-arthouse, euro sensibilities, you name it. miraculous filmmaking from someone who probably should have gone on to be a miraculous filmmaker. shoutouts as well to candidates like Girl Walk \\ All Day, The Hart of London, and 88:88.
edit: LMAOO how could i forget Wax, probably the 2nd greatest of all films (and certainly the greatest american one out there). made by a computer scientist off of public funding in the 90s, who then dipped, leaving behind something that feels like the theory of everything in the form of an 80 minute mockumentary cyberpunk extravaganza. no idea how he could stop after that, though no idea how he could top it either.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 1, 2019 13:15:27 GMT
As part of an Alan Bates marathon I'm starting - how about Harold Pinter's Butley - as far as I know this is the only feature film he directed ( Mattsby?). He didn't do much with it - it's barely opened up at all - very static - and it's the work of another playwright too. The performance (which Bates won the Tony for the year before) is the performance of his life and you could legit say he deserved a nod in '74 for it even. The performance is the movie......Pinter is the guy who preserved it at least.
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Post by ibbi on Jul 1, 2019 17:45:31 GMT
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead Good Film Directors.
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Post by TerryMontana on Jul 2, 2019 16:03:58 GMT
One-Eyed Jacks by Brando, The Night of the Hunter by Laughton, The Lost One by Peter Lorre, None But the Brave by Sinatra.
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Post by Mattsby on Oct 18, 2019 2:21:59 GMT
I watched it years ago but Don't Be Afraid of the Dark fits here for this month - the 2010 remake of the '70s TV Movie which I've N/S... Oops. Cowritten and developed/produced by Guillermo Del Toro who hand-picked some guy Troy Nixey to direct, and it's stilll his only IMDb credit. Ebert praised: "This is a very good haunted house film. It milks our frustration deliciously." It stars Bailee Madison (also in Brothers around the same time) who was a powerhouse young actress. Better than its 5.5 IMDb rating, it's solid and entertaining all around - especially for fans of freaky critters. here's Del Toro on set totally not directing Guy Pearce....
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